


Ground Zero

by Reishiin



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: AU - Hanakisou, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, background snowpocalypse, flippancy about death, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-07-12 00:43:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15983966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reishiin/pseuds/Reishiin
Summary: "If just one thing is eliminated, the world can continue on."Once every few generations, when the death toll from war and violence reaches critical mass, a snowstorm comes to end the world. There is only one way to avert the tragedy: the Saviour must find and kill Vector, who brings the ending winter. Tsukumo Yuuma was trained from birth to fulfil that duty, and has never second-guessed his task—until he meets Shingetsu Rei, and begins to think how unfair it is that someone has to die so that the world can live.(Hanakisou AU)





	1. As you wandered aimlessly

**Author's Note:**

> 2018, the year i post all the things i stopped caring about  
> Chapter titles from the [VN's theme song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArszRClPQO4)

 

 

Ten years ago the last ruler of the Astral Kingdom died and left no heir, and since then, the late king's advisor has held the throne in the interim. The court is neither opposed to it nor worried, because Regent Astral has no ambitions of his own. He merely manages domestic affairs and ensures the kingdom maintains its political position against the enemies that threaten it.

Yuuma thinks that it has been hard on him. Regent Astral is a prophet, not a politician, and he came to Astral to protect the Saviour, not rule the country. But even though Regent Astral is very busy with his duties and court affairs, he always makes time for Yuuma. "You are the Saviour, and the future of this kingdom," Regent Astral always says. "You are more important than anything."

Yuuma doesn't want to be 'more important than anything'. But Regent Astral always speaks in such a heavy tone, with such sorrowful eyes, that Yuuma would do anything if it would only make him smile. So Yuuma works hard, and trains hard, and carries out his duties to the best of his ability. Because there is someone like the Regent who believes in him.

 

* * *

 

 

The border wars between the seven countries have gone on a long, long time, and the history books lining the high walls of the Astral libraries are packed cover to cover with their endeavors. Yuuma has read them each at least once, at the behest of the Regent who wished him to understand the history of their world, and therein, the magnitude of his duty.

Amidst the tales of battles, intrigues and struggles spanning centuries, a year always comes when the winter is longer and colder than usual. Blizzards prevent travel and obscure vision, lakes freeze all the way through and the snow falls so thickly that it covers everything. The harsh conditions of those long winters become turning points in the ongoing wars, and there are always two individuals who surface then: the one who brought the winter, and the one who ended it.

Regent Astral told Yuuma that that the snow is grief: the tears wept by God the creator of the world at people's sin. Every so often, when the death count in the world passes a critical point, a star will fall from the sky. The star becomes Vector, the person who will carry God's grief to the world in the form of the ending winter. At the same time, another child with the fate opposite to Vector's is born into the world. The Saviour is the representation of hope, and the belief of people that things may still one day change. Those who are erased at the Saviour's hands are not added to the death count of the world.

The Saviour is the only one capable of ending Vector's existence. Every time Vector is destroyed, the death count in the world is reset.

Only when the fighting finally stops will the world no longer be in danger of ending. Until then, whenever Vector appears, it is the job of the Saviour to find and kill him so that the world may live on. Yuuma has been raised from birth to fulfil this role, and under Astral's care, he has never second-guessed his task.

Yuuma exists, and that means that somewhere in the world is a person whose fate is entangled with his. Sometimes, Yuuma wonders who that person is.

Regent Astral says: "When you meet him, you will know."

 

* * *

 

 

One morning Regent Astral says, "Yuuma, after your training this afternoon, meet me at the prison gates."

"Of course, Regent Astral."

It is the middle of a mild summer. The sun is pale and warm in a clear sky as Yuuma runs out to the palace courtyard where General Ryouga is waiting for him.

Kamishiro Ryouga is only several years older than Yuuma himself. He had had joined Astral's military at a young age and quickly risen through the ranks. Outside of work he keeps very much to himself, turning down all of Yuuma's efforts to befriend him. _He has lost a lot_ , Regent Astral told Yuuma, _and sometimes it is better to let people grieve._

By the time General Ryouga finally lets Yuuma out of training, it is late afternoon, and Yuuma drags his aching body to the arranged meeting place. Regent Astral is already there, and they descend the stone stairs and walk together down the familiar torch-lit corridors to the familiar cell.

The woman who is chained to the wall in the room looks up at the sound of their approaching footsteps. Her eyes are intelligent and clear, and as Yuuma approaches she does not throw herself at his feet or beg for her life.

Yuuma feels something clench in his chest.

 _(What crime did you commit?)  
_ _(Please, be at peace.)  
_ _(I am sorry.)_

Nothing Yuuma says or does can change the future. He feels Astral grasp his shoulder, and the weight of it makes conviction solidify in his heart. He unsheathes Hope and levels it at the woman, and swings.

Blood spatters across the cold stone floor.

 

 

 

_I can't do this._

On that first day, Yuuma had drawn Hope and then held the sword shaking in his hands as the man chained to the wall hurled curses at him, at Regent Astral and at all of creation, spittle flying from bared teeth. He had been young, curly-haired and bespectacled. Yuuma still remembers his face.

Regent Astral had said, _I understand, Yuuma. And I am sorry. more sorry than you can know, that you must be the one to do this. B_ _ut you are the Saviour, Yuuma. The lives you take do not bring the world closer to destruction. W_ _hen you release a soul in the name of God, that soul is saved, no matter what wrong they have done before. That is why it has to be you._

Over many years, the Regent has repeated many variations of these words to Yuuma. And Yuuma loves and trusts the Regent unconditionally, which makes it slightly less awful to have to do it. But when he is there, in that cell with the weight of Hope in his hands—no matter how many lives he takes, it still always feels as awful as the very first time.

 

 

 

Later, Yuuma asks Ryouga, "That woman. What was her name?"

"Why do you need to know?' General Ryouga replies, frowning.

"..." Yuuma sets the cloth aside and slides Hope back into the scabbard at his side. "People shouldn't do things like this without knowing. So please tell me, General."

Yuuma realizes, too late, that he's talking to someone who does things like this every day on the Astral borders and cannot even afford to think twice. But if Ryouga takes offense, he doesn't show it. "Kouzuki Anna," he replies. "That's her name. Don't make a habit of it."

Later that day Yuuma asks Regent Astral for leave to take Anna's possessions back to her hometown, a small town in the province of Sparta some way outside the capital city, several days' ride away.

 

 

Yuuma is unused to hard riding, but the weather is mild and the roads well-travelled, so the long journey is not rough. A little past midday of the fourth day he arrives at his destination, and asks for directions to the house Kouzuki Anna lived in. He knocks on the door, and is met by a middle-aged woman with hair braided around her face. As she waits for him to speak, he clenches his hands behind his back; he has never delivered this kind of bad news before.

A boy with a red jacket and red hair hair pokes his head out of a door to the side. The woman motions for him to go back in, but Yuuma smiles, and holds out Anna's deck to him. The boy takes it, and then runs back to hide behind the woman. "Go to your room, Allen," she says. When he is gone, she turns back to Yuuma. "Thank you."

_For what...?_

Yuuma lays Anna's things on the bench beside the table in the middle of the room. "I am sorry," he says quietly.

 _That she had to—  
_ _That I am the one who—_

"You must hate me," Yuuma says.

"No, Saviour." The woman has turned away from him to face the window. The summer day is bright, light streaming in through the window to lie across the walls and the empty table in the middle of the room, the sky blue and cloudless outside. "Anna did wrong, and it's only right that things are like this. We will hate the world for being cruel, but we will not hate you. In fact, we are grateful. Because of you, her soul can be saved."

The words are warm, but there is no warmth in her tone or her eyes. Yuuma catches himself before he can apologize again, and thanks her. Then he turns to leave, and hears the latch in the door slide shut behind him.

 

 

On the way back to the capital city, passing by the Sargasso mountain range, Yuuma dismounts to let his horse drink and rest. General Ryouga had made him promise to take care of Mach before he let him go.

In the mild mid-afternoon the sun is low in the sky, the river running parallel to the road is clear and flowing. South of here is a large village, east of here, a forest. Ahead, the Sargasso mountain range looms. When Mach has finished, Yuuma tethers him to a nearby tree and walks down a badly kept footpath to an outcrop which overlooks the village beneath.

As a cool breeze passes by and lifts his hair and ruffles his clothes, he thinks: it's nice here. He doesn't leave the palace very often, aside from running the occasional errand or delivering messages to General Ryouga at the borders when the messengers in the palace are all off on other assignments, and after the confines of the citadel walls, the expanse is staggering. 

"Ah, watch out!—"

Someone is running down the steep footpath that winds around the mountain. Yuuma doesn't get out of the way quickly enough, and that person crashes into Yuuma where he had frozen at the junction of the roads. Yuuma lands hard on his back, and around them both, the contents of the person's bundle fly everywhere.

"Ah, sorry, sorry, sorry," the other person says as he picks himself up and looks around at the fruits that had spilled from his bundle. His clothes are plain and loose and he looks about Yuuma's age; his hair is the color of the sky at dusk, or a falling star burning up as it enters the atmosphere. "I should've looked where I was going."

"Or you could just not run down steep roads," Yuuma replies.

"Ah, but I'm used to it, and no one ever comes this way." The boy rubs at the back of his head in embarrassment. He scrambles here and there picking up the things he'd dropped, and Yuuma bends to help. "In any case, neither of us got hurt, so it's fine."

The boy nods and smiles. "You're right."  His items collected, he ties the bundle off again and slings it over his shoulder. He dusts himself off, and then holds out one hand with a smile. "By the way, I'm Shingetsu Rei."

_When you meet him, you will know._

 

 


	2. Your frozen heart was shaken and you looked up at the sky

 

 

Yuuma has never actually thought very much about Vector. No one knows what Vector looks like, or where he lives, or what kind of person he is. That is why it is so hard to find him.

—Someone who is supposed to destroy the world probably hates it, right?

Yuuma doesn't know Shingetsu Rei very well, but that boy had seemed completely ordinary. On the other hand, looks and first impressions can also be deceiving.

That day they had exchanged names, and then Shingetsu had pushed a meat bun into his hand and said "I have to be getting home, my guardian is waiting for me." Yuuma had watched him disappear out of sight and then set off for home himself.

_...?_

At any rate:  
If Shingetsu Rei is Vector, then it's easier to just end it now.  
If he is not, then it is for the best that Yuuma knows for sure.

So Yuuma ties Hope's scabbard to the belt at his hip, and heads for the Sargasso mountain range again.

 

* * *

 

 

The Sargasso mountain range is several hours away. Shingetsu said he lived a little way up the slope of the mountain. There is only one badly maintained footpath in that direction, so the lodging Shingetsu mentioned is easy to find: a small house with a garden and a shed. The name on the mailbox says only _96._ Movement in the window indicates that somebody is home.

Yuuma knocks, and several moments later Shingetsu opens the door. "Who is it?"

_Without a doubt, this person is—_

"—Yuuma-kun," Shingetsu says with surprise. "It's Tsukumo Yuuma-kun, right? The one who lives in the palace? Is something the matter?"

Yuuma had one hand on the hilt of his sword, ready to draw, but now he lets his hand fall back to his side. "No, nothing, Shingetsu. I had the day off, and just thought I'd come to see you."

"Oh, that's all right then," Shingetsu says, and stands aside to let Yuuma in. The house consists of a main room with several doors opening off to each side: there is a table and two chairs in the entrance area, a kitchen area in the back and two rooms off to the side. Shingetsu offers him food—"made by my guardian, I'm afraid, I'm terrible at cooking—" and a cup of tea.

"Your guardian?"

"Mm, he takes care of me and teaches me everything I need to know. The school in the village is too far away, so I can't go."

"Did you want to go?" Yuuma has never gone either. Regent Astral has always taken care  of all his lessons.

"A bit, sometimes. But it's fine like this."

Yuuma nods. "It is."

It's easy to talk to Shingetsu, as if they have known each other for a long, long time.

When Shingetsu gets up to get more hot water, Yuuma looks down at the empty cup of tea in his hands and realises how easy it would have been to slip poison into it. If Ryouga finds out Yuuma let down his guard like that...

Later Yuuma helps Shingetsu clear the table, and then Shingetsu takes him outside to see the birdhouse in the vegetable garden and the flowers blooming on the cherry blossom trees. In the crisp fresh air and the warmth of afternoon sun, Yuuma feels a strange lightness in his chest. Shingetsu shows him a birdhouse, a small wooden box attached to a pole by the garden fence. "You built this yourself?" Yuuma asks, peering into the interior. It's dark inside, and he can't see anything.

"Mm, I did," Shingetsu replies. "Just this past spring."

The day passes away before either of them realise, and as the sun begins to sink lower in the sky, Yuuma makes his excuses and gets up to leave. He has quite a way to travel, and he needs to be back before it gets too dark. "You should come down to the capital city sometime, Shingetsu," he says.

"It's far, isn't it? I'm not really used to travelling." Shingetsu smiles, and Yuuma can't read his feelings behind it. "Bye, Yuuma."

 

* * *

 

 

That night the owner of the house, dressed in layers of black even in the summer heat, frowns over the dinner table at Shingetsu Rei. "Your friend. He said he was from the palace, right?"

"Mm," Shingetsu nods, and reaches for more food.

"Is this okay, Rei?"

"You're worried he'll tell Regent Astral about me?"

"Something like that."

"It's okay," Shingetsu replies. "Even if he does, I'm just an ordinary boy who just happens to live out of the way, right? I've never had friends before, Ninety-six. Even if it's only just for a little while..."

_Even if he is—_

_(don't think about it)_

"All right," Ninety-six replies. "But be careful, Rei."

 

* * *

 

 

Lately, General Ryouga always seems like he has something on his mind. He has always kept distant from Yuuma: he instructs Yuuma in fighting and guards him at ceremonies or events that require his presence, but nothing else. Everybody in the Astral Kingdom is sad like that, in a way. As long as the border wars are still ongoing, every day the death count of the world increases, taking it one more step towards its destruction.

Even though their paths often crossed, Yuuma has come to realize that he and General Ryouga live in completely different worlds. Ryouga lost his family at a young age and grew up fighting in Astral's border wars for his life and the lives of everyone in the Astral Kingdom. In contrast, Yuuma has never fought for anything before. Even if there is something he wanted to protect, he doesn't think he knows how to.

Lately, Ryouga always seems like he has a lot on his mind, and that upsets Yuuma, and makes him want to do something. But Yuuma always seems to say exactly the wrong things, and over time he begins to think it's better to say and do nothing at all.

"General Ryouga," he says. "Is everything all right?"

Ryouga doesn't look up from where he's writing some report or other. "Yes."

"Is there—is there anything I can do to help?"

Ryouga finally looks up at him then. "Pay attention at lessons. Get better at this. Find Vector and kill him," Ryouga says. "Then everything will be all right."

 

* * *

 

 

Yuuma stats to look forward to the times Astral has to entertain diplomats, because it means he gets time off and can go to see Shingetsu again. He borrows Mach from the stables in the morning, spends the day, and gets back before it is dark. Sometimes they will stay indoors and go through Shingetsu's collection of books (really his guardian's), or go outside and sit in the swing under the tree, or lie in the grass in the garden under the canopy of leaves and talk about everything and nothing at all.

"Ohh~ You brought visitors, Rei?"

"Hello, Ninety-six," Yuuma says, and steps out from behind Shingetsu to greet the arrival. Shingetsu's guardian looks identical to Regent Astral, but his hair is black instead of white, and his clothes are sharp and plain as opposed to the regent's flowing ceremonial attires. "My name is Yuuma."

Ninety-six eyes Yuuma for a moment longer than is comfortable, his congenial expression freezing into something more assessing. "Oh, you're Rei's friend from the palace, right? He's told me a lot about you, but he didn't say you were..."

Yuuma's chest freezes up and he does his best to maintain a calm expression. "... I am?"

Ninety-six blinks. "He didn't say you were so short."

Relief floods Yuuma then and he laughs politely, then takes the opportunity to change the subject. "You look almost exactly like someone I know."

"Oh, the Regent? I've been told," Ninety-six replies cheerfully. Yuuma sits down at the wooden table in the middle of the room as Ninety-six lays out several steaming plates of food. "We knew each other before but no further association, I'm afraid."

"Before, as in, before he became regent of the Kingdom?"

Ninety-six laughs gently. "Before the world existed at all. I'm a Number. One of the Hundred that were made at the same time as the world."

Those strange immortal spirits with strong powers, who exist only to fight—usually, they choose a master and serve at that person's side in the wars. General Ryouga commands two, both great sea dragons, and it is rumoured that the Regent Astral holds one too. But some of the Numbers choose to take a corporeal form and live among humans instead.

"Then Regent Astral, is he a Number too?"

"Mm, that guy Astral is something else entirely. But I suppose it's fine for you to think of him like that."

"Hey, Ninety-six," Shingetsu interjects. "Who are the first ninety-five?"

"Don't know," the man replies. "And you better hope you never meet them, Rei, because they sure aren't as nice as I am..."

Conversation flows easily over the table, and later, after they have helped Ninety-six clear the table and can go out into the garden, Yuuma turns to Shingetsu again. "A Number, huh."

"What about it?" Shingetsu hums cheerfully.

 "The Numbers were created by a god, were they? The same power that created the world." _The same power that made the neverending winter, and Vector and the Saviour._

"Mm, something like that," Shingetsu says. "Ninety-six explained it to me before, but I don't really understand it. So I just accept that it's there."

"The Numbers can choose their form, don't they? Why does Ninety-six take that appearance?"

"To annoy Astral, maybe?" Shingetsu replies. "Ninety-six doesn't think too highly of him." Shingetsu laughs, and Yuuma feels something warm rise in his chest. Here, beneath a canopy of leaves under the dying autumn sun, Yuuma wishes that this moment can last forever.

It's hard to believe that someone like this—  
—is the one who will bring about the end of the world.

In the end, all Yuuma has to go on is a feeling. And it's easy for things like that to be wrong. Even Astral doesn't know who Vector is, so it's definitely possible that Shingetsu's not him.

It is still early in the year, and the weather is still warm. There is time for Yuuma to investigate Shingetsu further, and find out whether he really is...

 

 


	3. A bird, the harbinger of spring, counts the number of tears

 

 

Autumn in Sargasso, the footpath is covered up with leaves falling from the trees, but by now Yuuma already knows the way. Over tea and sweet cakes Shingetsu asks him, "Do they work you very hard in the palace?"

Shingetsu probably means laundry, or cleaning the kitchen floors, or whatever he thinks Yuuma does do. Yuuma considers his - job - in the prison, thinks that maybe that's not so different. "It's fine," Yuuma replies. "If it's for the sake of Regent Astral, then it's fine."

Ninety-six laughs. "See that? If only you looked up to me that much, Shingetsu."

"That's different." Shingetsu tosses his spoon across the table, and Ninety-six catches it, and Yuuma steals the last piece of chicken while no one is looking. It's a beautiful day, and warm inside the house, and the food is good and the tea is fragrant.

—Yuuma didn't even bring Hope this time.

Later when Ninety-six has left to run errands and Shingetsu drags Yuuma into the forest to look at a nest of birds, he asks, "Is it true, about the fighting? That it's getting worse?"

Shingetsu, being so far from the borders, probably doesn't see any of it. Yuuma thinks it's better this way. "Yeah," Yuuma says. General Ryouga has been absent longer and longer as of late. Every few months he will take Astral's army and depart for the east gate to fight against Heartland and Photon and Arclight and Barian, and return weeks later with a thin group of survivors and a haunted expression.

The farmers are already reporting that winter will be long and cold this year. Many of the roads will be closed for the bad weather, and Yuuma won't be able to come here to see Shingetsu. He wants to say something— _Stay safe_ , or _I'll miss you_ , or—

But Shingetsu has already passed many winters without Yuuma around, so he's probably used to it. And if that is true, then Yuuma doesn't want to burden him with his feelings.

_Even so..._

Shingetsu turns to him and smiles as he sees him to the door. "See you next spring," he says, and waves.

Yuuma unties Mach and then turns back around to the house for one last goodbye, but Shingetsu has already gone.

 

* * *

 

 

In winter, the mountain ranges are blocked off by snow. Yuuma remains at Astral's side, in his study and at court, and reads the memoirs of the first Astral-Barian war cover to cover.

General Ryouga dons heavy cloaks and rides out to assist Photon's eldest prince against Arclight's onslaught on their shared border. Weeks later he returns with a thin group of survivors and a haunted expression, holes himself up in his study for half a day and then turns in his report to the regent. He doesn't pay any attention at all to Yuuma, who stands at Astral's side.

Later, Yuuma asks Astral, "Will the general be all right?"

"It's nothing you have to worry about," Astral replies. "All of us came into this world to play a role. Regardless of how you feel about that role, it is your responsibility to fulfil it. You, and me, and the General, and everyone."

"But if this world only causes people pain, then maybe—it shouldn't exist."

"Please, Yuuma, never think that."

Yuuma wonders how Shingetsu is doing. Whether Shingetsu loves the snow as much as he loves the falling flowers in spring or the leaves in autumn, or if he would rather stay indoors where it is warm.

Outside the window the snow falls thickly over the shrubs in the palace garden. Yuuma falls asleep to the sound of Astral's voice, and dreams of a silent world encased in white where the only sound is Shingetsu's voice, the only colour is Shingetsu's bright hair as they walk together hand in hand through the endless wasteland. He wakes to weak daylight, and looks out of the window at the snow-covered trees and the pale cold sun low in the sky. Maybe the farmers and Regent Astral's divinations are all wrong, and the world has already run over, and they are all going to die here after all.

But winter does end. At the end of the long night the sun grows warm again, and the snow cover melts and water the first flowers of spring.

 

* * *

 

 

Spring days in the shade of the cherry blossom tree by Shingetsu's house. "Shingetsu, do friends ever lie to each other?"

"Sometimes," Shingetsu replies. "When they don't want each other to get hurt."

"But isn't it better to be honest? If they are real friends, then even if the truth is bad, they can get through it together."

"I don't think it's that simple," Shingetsu says. "But you're right. It's better not to lie, because the truth will come out in the end. No one can hide their true nature forever..." He rolls over to face Yuuma fully then, his eyes crinkle as he smiles. "Like this, it's all right, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Yuuma replies.

Their hands idly tangle in the grass.

 

* * *

 

 

That summer, General Ryouga brings the Regent a proposal for a temporary alliance, negotiated over many long and too-warm days with Photon's eldest prince. "There is no time left," Ryouga says. "Since we can't find Vector, this is all we can do."

He doesn't state the obvious: that if the ending winter really is arriving, then this small and temporary ceasefire will hardly be enough to stop it. He doesn't look at Yuuma at all.

"Make the necessary arrangements," Regent Astral tells Ryouga. "I will support it wholeheartedly. If Photon reneges on their promise, that is the end of all of us, and it will be on my hands."

"I trust Kaito," General Ryouga says.

"And I trust you." Ryouga and Photon's eldest prince are kindred spirits, Astral had told Yuuma before. They both have suffered similar losses, and feel the same responsibility for protecting that which remains to them. For that reason, they understand each other.

"I'm sorry," Yuuma says later, when General Ryouga has gone."That I don't understand, that I can't help."

"You are the Saviour," Astral replies. "And you mean everything."

 

* * *

 

 

Late summer on a clear day, Shingetsu turns his face to the sky, and the wind tugs at the spikes of his hair. "Winter'll be here soon, Yuuma. They say that this time, it won't end."

"Mm," Yuuma says, not moving from where he's lying in the grass. "The Regent's looking for Vector."

"That's what he says, but there's no way he'll find him, can he?" Shingetsu has turned over to lie on his side, his face inches from Yuuma's own, his eyes wide. "Regent Astral doesn't know who Vector is, or what he looks like. The world is such a big place, and they don't even know where to start looking."

"There's still the Saviour," Yuuma says. "He will know Vector on sight."

"Will he really?" Shingetsu says. "How will he know?"

"I don't know. He just will."

"Have you ever felt like that, Yuuma? Like you knew someone long before you met them?"

It's like being back on the edge of the outcrop overlooking the village where they first met. Shingetsu, for whatever reason, makes Yuuma seriously consider jumping. Yuuma takes a deep breath."Yes. I met you," he says. "When I first met you, Shingetsu, it was like—like we'd known each other for a long, long time."

_Like we were fated to meet..._

At that, Shingetsu pulls himself into a sitting position and draws his knees up to his chest thoughtfully. "You know, Yuuma, I thought the same. Like you were someone I've always known. But it's just that we get along well, right? it doesn't mean anything. We're not the kind of people fate cares about. I'm no one, and Yuuma's just Yuuma, right?"

_Shut up shut up shut up shut up_

"Shingetsu, I like you."

A look of surprise crosses the other boy's face. "Same, Yuuma, I like you too."

"No, Shingetsu, I don't mean like that." Yuuma reaches out and curls a hand around the back of Shingetsu's neck, pulls him close and kisses him, and then he sits back and waits for Shingetsu's reaction with a terrible knot in the pit of his stomach. Shingetsu is so close, his eyes are searching Yuuma's face and his expression is unreadable. Yuuma is terrified: what if he's wrong, what if he doesn't mean it, and things are fine like this and  why is he trying to ruin a good thing anyway—

Shingetsu leans in, eyes impossibly wide, and closes the distance between them again.

In the end, everything has changed, but nothing changes at all.

Shingetsu whispers against Yuuma's lips, "What are you trying to do, Saviour?"

"What?" Yuuma's eyes fly open, his entire body floods with ice.

"I don't know what you're trying to do, Yuuma," Shingetsu says again. "But isn't it time to drop the act?"

The closeness isn't nice anymore. Yuuma scrambles backwards. Shingetsu's still looking at him, but his eyes are impossibly cold, and Yuuma suddenly gets the feeling he doesn't know him at all. "I have to go," Yuuma says.

"Don't come back." Shingetsu says.

Yuuma goes.

 

 

 

When Yuuma returns to the palace, Astral is waiting for him. "I spoke to a farmer named Gilag today," Astral says. "He says this winter will be longer and colder than it has been for a long, long time. He says, maybe it won't end."

"Okay," Yuuma says. He knows what Astral means, and knows what he has to do.

"Yuuma, I haven't told you much about Vector." Yuuma makes a noncommittal sound. "—So it makes sense, in a way, that you'd feel at a loss on actually meeting him."

—Astral knows. How long has Astral known?

The Regent's face is expressionless as he says,  "I thought, Yuuma, that you would do the right thing." He draws closer and reaches out to pull Yuuma into an embrace, presses Yuuma's face into his shoulder, and it's only when Yuuma feels damp fabric against his cheek that he realizes he is crying. "Remember, all of us came into this world to play a role. Regardless of how you feel about that role, it is your responsibility to see it fulfilled."

_Find and kill Vector, and save the world._

Regent Astral has always been so kind to him. If it is that person's wish, Yuuma will do anything.

"I will, Regent Astral."

 

 


	4. A flower blooming in a snowy field

 

 

Winter arrives two months early that year, the roads rapidly becoming more difficult to travel, snowstorms battering against the border walls and burying low-lying areas in graves of ice. Yuuma barricades himself in his room, marking off the days since the ending winter began. He knows what he has to do, and he can't delay it forever.

Not when the whole world is depending on him.

On a warm day when the pale sun has melted some of the snow away, Yuuma slips out without telling anybody where he is going, and makes the journey back down to Sargasso. The roads feel different this time and  Yuuma wants to blame it on the winter, wants to think it's the snow that falls as thickly in his heart as it does on the ground, but he had travelled these roads last winter and he knows that's wrong.

He knocks on Shingetsu's door, but with a rhythm pattern different than he usually does. The sound of the bolt sliding back reaches his ears and Yuuma shoulders the door open, leveling Hope at Shingetsu's throat.

"It's you," Shingetsu says.

Yuuma nods. He doesn't know what to say.

"--I know what I am," Shingetsu says without preamble. "And I hoped I was wrong about who you were. But that's not the case, is it? Saviour."

"If you knew all along, then why didn't you run? That day when we first met. Or any of the days after that."

"You didn't try to hurt me then, and you haven't tried to hurt me since." Shingetsu glances down at Hope. "Until now. I thought, I could be wrong and you're not really who I thought you were. And even if I wasn't wrong... " Shingetsu swallows. "You were kind to me. Maybe I just wanted something for myself for once."

Yuuma presses Hope closer to Shingetsu's throat but his hands are shaking.

"You knew, too, didn't you," Shingetsu says. "You knew all along, and you didn't do anything. Why, Yuuma? Why didn't you do anything?" Shingetsu wraps one hand around Hope's blade, not tightly enough to draw blood, and lifts until its point rests against the hollow of his throat. He swallows—the blade bobs against the skin—and meets Yuuma's eyes. Go ahead."

_For the first time in my life, I had something, something that was more important to me than anything._

Yuuma strikes. Hope's point lands in the wood paneling a hand's breadth from Shingetsu's right ear, and the quivers from the blade thrum through Yuuma as Shingetsu opens his eyes. Yuuma drops his grip on the hilt, lowers his eyes. The sword clatters to the floor. "I can't do it, Shingetsu."

"Yuuma."

"I know what's going to happen if I don't. But I can't."

_Not now that I know you, Shingetsu, not now that I know there's not a part of you that wants the world dead. I..._

_I'm sorry, Astral. I wanted so much to make you happy. But now I have something to fight for that means more to me than my own life, that means more to me than the whole world._

Yuuma holds out his hand. "Come with me, Shingetsu."

"Where?"

"I don't know," Yuuma says honestly. "But the world is a very big place, and somewhere under the sky there must be a way to undo this curse."

"Yuuma," Shingetsu begins. "This isn't a good idea."

"There is a way. There must be, I know it. And, Shingetsu, you believe in me, right?" A sound in the distance. Yuuma goes to Shingetsu's window and sees a group of moving figures in the distance: by their speed, they are horses. They are headed in this direction. _Nobody from the capital has a reason to come out here to Sargasso in this weather, aside from..._ "Shingetsu. We have to go."

"Now?"

"Someone must have followed me here." He holds out his hand. Shingetsu hesitates, then takes it.

"Let's split up," Shingetsu says. "I know this place better than you do, I'll draw them off. Go that way. I'll see you by the river, okay?"

"Okay."

Yuuma runs. The road Shingetsu pointed him to is rough and badly kept, and partway in stones catch in the bottom of Yuuma's shoes, but he keeps going. By the time he reaches the meeting place at the bottom of the mountain, Shingetsu's not there yet. But Shingetsu promised he'd be, and Yuuma believes him.

A rustle in the trees, and someone stumbles into the clearing. Not Shingetsu. A young boy, probably from the village. Yuuma just looks at him, feeling as petrified as the boy looks.

The boy falls forward and Yuuma catches him, sees with a horrible sinking feeling that a knife is sticking out of the back of his neck. Blood bubbles to his lips. "Shingetsu..."

Shingetsu dashes into the clearing then, and his eyes widen when he sees the boy. "Arito..."

The boy has stopped drawing breath. Yuuma runs a hand over his face to close his eyes. "Did you know him?"

"We met only once, but we're friends," Shingetsu says. He slides the knife from the boy's back and turns it over to examine the handle. "Astral's crest," he says, turning it to show Yuuma. "He must have run into our pursuers, and when he couldn't tell them anything about my whereabouts, they..."

Shingetsu pulls the boy's body to him, his shoulders heaving with sobs. Yuuma touches his shoulder hesitantly. "I'm sorry, Shingetsu." He thinks: _it's for the best like this, since nobody knows where we are now_. And then he immediately hates himself.

(A voice very like Ryouga's says: The dagger was put through his neck, not his back. Arito wasn't killed by just anyone, it was someone he trusted.)

The sound of shouting in the distance, getting closer. "They must have followed him," Yuuma says, something sickening settling in his stomach. "We have to go."

"This way," Shingetsu says.

They run.

 

 

Shingetsu leads him partway into the mountains, onto a trail all but invisible unless one knew it was there, and through the forest at the foot of the mountain into a clearing on Sargasso's far side.

Yuuma slumps against a nearby tree to catch his breath, and when he can breathe again, he says, "I think we lost them."

"For now," Shingetsu says. "Not for long. Yuuma?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry," Shingetsu says, "but I can't follow you any further."

"What?"

"It was fun playing friends with you, but it ends here."

Yuuma doesn't understand. "Shingetsu, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying, I lied to you. I'm Vector, remember? I want you dead."

"That's not true," Yuuma says, but his hands have gone completely numb from shock. Shingetsu, if this was your plan all along, then why did you follow me all this way..."

"So I can kill you with no one interfering. Idiot."

He draws his own sword, rapier-thin with a black blade. Yuuma parries on instinct, wonders where he learned to fight. If Ninety-six really is a Number, maybe he taught him. "Shingetsu—"

"My name," his opponent spits through clenched teeth as he strikes again, Yuuma desperately forced into defending, "is _Vector_."

"Shingetsu," Yuuma says again, as if it'll change anything. "Why?"

Shingetsu twists around Yuuma's next swing, hooks his foot into Yuuma's knee. Yuuma stumbles, but catches himself before he hits the ground and quickly recovers. "The world has given me nothing, so why should I give it anything? Why should I let myself be bound by such a promise to its fate? If the world really wants me dead so much, _Saviour_ , I'm taking you down with me."

Yuuma twists around and Vector's sword goes wide, crashing point first into a tree and sticking fast. "If you're going to hell, Shingetsu, then I'll go with you."

Shingetsu's face twists. " _Idiot_ ," he repeats, and wrenches his sword to one side. It comes free but the momentum sends him spinning. Yuuma steps forward and brings the hilt of the sword crashing down hard onto the back of Shingetsu's head.

Shingetsu crumples to the floor. Yuuma drops Hope and bends to check on him; his eyes are closed, his breathing shallow but there. There's no blood, and he looks like he's only sleeping. He always looked so at peace at those times, when he was sleeping in the shade of the trees under the summer sky on a clear day.

He was happy then, right?

"I wish you could forget, Shingetsu. I wish you'd forget everything, and we can just go on living like this and be happy."

Around them, the trees are silent and unmoving. Yuuma shivers in the cold winter air and swipes at the tears running down his face. He sheathes Hope, takes Shingetsu to the hollow of a nearby tree. He shivers, then ducks under Shingetsu's cloak and wraps his own around Shingetsu's body.

In the sky, the sun is setting. All around them the clearing is silent. No one seems to have followed them here. Yuuma curls around Shingetsu's unmoving body to keep the heat in, and falls asleep.

 

 

* * *

 

 

_Shingetsu._

"Ah, you're awake," Yuuma says. They're still in the clearing, but in the warmth of daybreak some of the snow from last night has melted and Yuuma can see through the trees to the faint outline of the main road, on which people are already travelling. By his estimation, they're not far from the next town over.

Shingetsu rubs the sleep from eyes. "Why can't I remember anything..."

"Ah, well, you hit your head, Shingetsu."

"Yeah, I can tell." He touches the back of his head and winces. "That's my name? Shingetsu?"

Yuuma nods. "Mm. Do you remember mine?"

Shingetsu shakes his head. "No."

Yuuma laughs a little. "My name is Yuuma, written like 'swimming horse'."

"Swimming horse,"  Shingetsu repeats, and laughs warmly. "So, Yuu-ma. What are we doing out here on the edge of a forest when it's all cold out?"

_... He doesn't know why we're here?_

_Did he really forget?_

Yuuma swallows. "We're here on holiday, Shingetsu. We're friends, and I'm on break from work, so you said we should go into town together."

"Oh, okay," Shingetsu says. "Were we having fun?"

"We are now," Yuuma says with a smile. "Shall we keep going?"

The next town over is a big one. The snow had fallen heavily last night, a thick blanket of white over the ground ond on the roof of every house, but the roads have been cleared for travellers and it's easy to follow the flow of people through the city streets, lined on both sides with shops and houses. The center of the city is bustling with life as locals and visitors alike walk down the roads to see the sights.

Shingetsu's eyes go wide with wonder. Yuuma remembers that he hasn't seen anything like this place before, either, having lived most of his life in that secluded place. They have that in common, st least. Yuuma catches Shingetsu's wrist again and drags him into the rows of roadside stalls, seeing his face light up with a brilliant smile at all the beautiful things.

_Maybe it's better if you don't remember._

 

* * *

 

 

They find lodging at a nearby inn where the innkeeper welcomes them warmly, says there are many rooms open due to the snow which is falling much more heavily than usual. "People are travelling less. They say that maybe this time, the winter won't end."

"I'm sure it will," Shingetsu says. Yuuma stays quiet.

Up in their assigned room as they're unpacking, Shingetsu asks, "Hey, who's Vector?"

"Where did you hear that name?" Yuuma says.

"People were talking about him back at the market," Shingetsu says. "They said the Regent Astral is looking for him. What did he do?"

"He..." Yuuma pauses. He doesn't know how much Shingetsu heard, or how much Shingetsu remembers. "He's the one who will destroy the world."

Shingetsu nods thoughtfully. "So they're trying to capture him?" Yuuma nods. "To be hunted like that... He must really hate the world for making him have to live that kind of life," Shingetsu says.

Yuuma nods. "The world burdened him with such a terrible fate, and never allowed him to live like a normal human."

The night passes uneventfully, but the next day as they're preparing to leave, Yuuma hears the familiar sound of horsehooves in the street. Travellers arriving by horse must have come a long distance, and to do so in this weather...

Yuuma tenses. "Shingetsu, we have to go."

"Why?"

"I'll explain later." Yuuma grabs their things and then Shingetsu's hand, and  starts running. It's late morning and the market is already crowded with people, and it's impossible to see where he's going. A whinny sounds and the galloping stops, shouts rise into the air for the crowd to part. Shingetsu's grip is vicelike around his hand. In desperation Yuuma takes a turn into an alley he doesn't know, and at the end of the twists and turns he finds himself at a dead end.

Yuuma whirls around and sets off back at a run in the hopes he can make it back before they're trapped, but at the next turn in the narrow alleyway  he finds himself faced with the point of a sword. It's General Ryouga, accompanied by an entourage. "So this is where you ran to, Yuuma."

"General Ryouga." Yuuma steps in front of Shingetsu."How did you find us?"

"You were never good at covering your tracks. But what I'm worried about right now is—" Ryouga turns and levels his sword at Shingetsu's throat. "You're not getting away again, _Vector._ "

"Vector..." Shingetsu's eyes narrow in realization and Yuuma's heart drops into the floor. Shingetsu turns to him. "Yuuma, is what this guy says true? The person called Vector, whom the Astral Kingdom is hunting... is me?"

"Are you playing dumb or what?" Ryouga snaps.

"No, don't listen to him, Shingetsu—"

General Ryouga glances between them. "Both of you, shut up." He brings his sword down on the back of Yuuma's neck and the world goes black.

 

* * *

 

 

Yuuma wakes up in a cold room with brick walls. There is a single high barred window along one wall, and a heavy metal door. He tries to get up but is yanked backwards by a weight on his hands; they're bolted to the floor by steel chains.

At his side, Shingetsu stirs. "Are you all right?" Yuuma asks at once.

"Yeah. Where are we? Where did that guy go?"

"I don't know. He probably went to tell Astral about us," Yuuma breathes.

"Not us," Shingetsu says quietly. "Just me. You lied to me, Yuuma."

"I'm sorry, Shingetsu. I didn't mean it. I didn't."

"How am I supposed to believe you now?"

A loud thud on the other side of the wall interrupts them, and they both turn to to look at the blank brick. "Ey, Rei," a voice comes in through the high window. "What's the name of the pet rabbit you had when you were six years old?"

Shingetsu looks at Yuuma with a question in his eyes. _He doesn't remember,_ Yuuma realizes, and frantically thinks back to the stories Shingetsu told him over those many afternoons about his life before. "Shining," Yuuma yells up to the window.

"Oh, the pipsqueak is here too," the voice says, with a note of amusement. "Think fast, you both!"

The wall rumbles, and Yuuma barely has time to throw his arms in front of his face before it comes crasheing down in front of them. "Quick, get over here," Ninety-six says, before the dust has even cleared. "That Ryouga guy will be back soon."

Yuuma pulls himself together and gets shakily to his feet. He picks up the piece of wall where his and Shingetsu's chains are still stuck, slings Shingetsu's arm around his neck, and helps him over to where Ninety-six is waiting. Shingetsu has pulled a hairpin from inside his clothes and sticks it in the padlocks, which fall away with a clank.

"Where are you taking us?" Yuuma asks as the aura of the Numbers surrounds the three of them. Yuuma has seen General Ryouga use this power before: the ancient beings have the ability to appear and disappear at their wielder's will.

"Somewhere that guy can't find you," Ninety-six replies. He wraps his travelling-cloak around them all, the heavy fabric blocking Yuuma's view of the world. Yuuma feels a strong wind rise around them all, then the world tilts on its side as Ninety-six takes them-- where, Yuuma doesn't know.

 

 


	5. On this silver-white road that continues without end

 

"Somewhere" is an abandoned glass city in the sky. The high buildings lining the crystalline streets are clear or translucent ice-blue, light reflecting and refracting over the prismatic surfaces to illuminate every nook and corner. All through the streets snow is still falling, thick and white and covering everything.

Within one of the high towers by the city gates, Yuuma rubs at his eyes. Shingetsu is already awake, sitting at a plain table and looking rather sick. Ninety-six carries a tray into the room. "Eat," Ninety-six says, and pushes two bowls in front of them. "You need it."

Vector pokes at the lumps in the thin soup and frowns. "What is this, Ninety-six?"

Trust me, you don't want to know, Rei." Then he says, "So you remember me..."

"You're my guardian, aren't you? Of course I remember..."

Shingetsu seems to want to say more, but then he seems to catch himself and and dives back into the soup, taking tiny sips of the broth out of the spoon. The easy rhythm of the interaction makes Yuuma think this has happened before.

The meal passes in silence. Yuuma is the first to put his spoon back in the bowl, and Ninety-six drops his own food and looks across the table. "Yuuma, can you help me with the dishes?"

Yuuma nods mutely. He picks up the empty plates from the table and follows Ninety-six into the next room, leaving Shingetsu still sipping at the soup. Ninety-six watches him go, then turns to Yuuma. "Yuuma. How're you holding up?"

Yuuma thinks about everything that has happened over the last few days: about confronting Shingetsu, about running. He thinks about getting caught by General Ryouga and the way Shingetsu had looked at him when he admitted to lying, and how Shingetsu hasn't looked at Yuma since they both got to this place. "Ninety-six, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"You've known him much longer than I have. Which is the real Shingetsu? The one who smiles and says I am his friend? Or the one who tried to kill me, and says he hates me?"

"Why not both?" Ninety-six replies. "People aren't always one thing or the other, Yuuma."

Yuuma laughs gently, and thinks that maybe if he'd gone out into the world instead of being kept in the palace for all his seventeen years at Astral's side, he'd know that.

Ninety-six continues, "The question is, Yuuma. What will you do now? Rei's fate, and the fate of the world. It's in your hands now."

"I still can't do it," Yuuma says softly. "After everything, I still can't kill Shingetsu. I'd rather the world ended than kill him."

Ninety-six nods. "Have you ever considered, Yuuma," he says quietly, "what Rei wants?"

"..." Yuuma nods, his face resolute. "I'll talk to him."

 

* * *

 

 

Back in the main hall, Shingetsu has pulled up a chair to one of the glass walls overlooking the street. Through the window, he watches the snow fall thick and white upon the streets beneath. It has piled so high that the ground is a layer of opaque white instead of translucent.

Yuuma enters the room. "Shingetsu," he tries.

"My name is Vector. Use it."

Yuuma pauses. "What do you want to do from here?"

"Does it matter?" Shingetsu turns. "Yuuma, what would you do if I told you I wanted you to kill me so that the world can live?"

"I wouldn't do it. I'd die first."

"And if I told you that I will be happy to see the world end?"

"Then we can watch it end together."

"So," Shingetsu says, and looks back out the window at the falling snow. "What I want makes no difference in the end, does it?"

"It does," Yuuma says softly. "Something may change."

"Nothing will," Shingetsu says. "Nothing ever has."

* * *

 

 

When Yuuma has retired to another room, saying he would prefer to be alone, Ninety-six goes to see Shingetsu. Shingetsu's satchel is set at the foot of the bed, and he is standing at the window watching the snow come down outside. "Time is running out, isn't it?" he says softly.

"Yes," Ninety-six replies.

"And Yuuma still..."

"Do you trust him, Rei?"

"I do," Shingetsu replies. "It's stupid, and I shouldn't. But I do trust him." He pauses. "Like I trust you. Even though I don't really remember who you are, it's like I've known you for so long..."

 _You have, Rei. And in another life, or if things were different, I would tell you that story._ Out loud, Ninety-six just says, "And you'll be fine if he decides for you?"

Shingetsu shakes his head. "I already know what he decided, and there's nothing I can do about it."

"Are you sure of that?"

"Yes," Shingetsu says. "I'm sure."

"Get some rest," Ninety-six says. "Who knows what tomorrow will be like."

 

* * *

 

 

When Vector wakes up, he is alone.

His head hurts. He looks around at the unfamiliar walls, tries to remember how he got here. It returns little by little. _Yuuma. General Ryouga._

Everything before that is a blur.

"Welcome back, Vector."

Vector whips around. There is an man standing in the doorway looks like Yuuma, but older, taller. His eyes are narrower and his hair longer, but Vector feels at ease around him the same way he does around Yuuma, and very few other people. Still, this is a place protected by the power of the Numbers that nobody outside of them should be able to enter. "Who are you?"

"Call me a researcher," the man says. "I've been watching you for a long time, Vector."

"What do you want with me?"

The corners of the man's lips lift, but there's no emotion in it, as if the face is only a mask the man wears out of convenience. "Nothing. Nothing you can do, at least. I just wanted to see if... but at this point, I think the answer is no. Even so, you, and Tsukumo Yuuma, the destruction and salvation of the miniature garden... I must admit, it has been interesting."

"Who are you?" Vector asks again quietly.

The researcher smiles, and still does not answer. "Shall I give you back your memories, Vector?"

"..."

Vector nods.

The world goes white around him.

 


	6. Leave everything that steals you away behind in the frozen town

 

 

Shingetsu Rei's parents died when he was six.

The neighbours said they heard a terrible commotion in the house, sounds of arguing and things being thrown. Half an hour later they managed to break through the thrice-barred wooden door and found the living room in ruins, the two people lying dead in the middle of the floor, and their child cowering in the corner.

There was no mark of violence on either of their bodies. No one could explain why, but it seemed like their blood froze to sharp spikes of ice that punctured all their internal organs.

After the funeral proceedings, Rei stayed by the gravestones, and laid over them a wreath he made himself from the flowers in the garden behind their house. As he pulled his hands away, frost spidered over the petals.

"..."

  

Two years later a well-dressed man, who bore more than a passing resemblance to the Regent Astral, came into town and introduced himself as a friend of Shingetsu Rei's parents. "You can call me Ninety-six," he said. "I've come for the child."

The village elder's face went blank, and then he blinked and shook his head. "Sure," he says. "Please, take care of him."

So Rei was instructed to pack up the few things he owned, and go with the man.

 

* * *

 

 

Rei gets cold easily, so he boards up his windows and keeps his door shut, and piles plenty of blankets on his bed. By firelight he reads Ninety-six's collection of books cover to cover, and then curls up under his blanket fort and dreams. In his dreams, there is a far-away island nation where it is summer all year round. There is never snow, only rain, and sometimes flash floods overrun the river and drown the plains.

Halfway up the Sargasso mountains, there is snow, and thin soil that needs to be turned and watered and fertilized with rotten berries and leaf litter collected from the inner forest. Over the long mild spring, Rei tends the vegetable garden with Ninety-six and watches carrots and cabbages grow, and thinks: _It's fine like this, isn't it?_ If he never goes out into the world, then he will never have the means to destroy it.

And yet...

Rei touches the fence and concentrates. Frost creeps down the wire and spiders over the ground. As it touches the first row of cabbages, they immediately freeze over. Crystalline ice blooms along the lines of veins, powdery and white.

Ninety-six's voice, from behind. "Is it so bad, if the entire world is like this?"

Rei turns. "Ninety-six..."

(At the end of everything, Rei will walk through the white wasteland alone, and it might not be much different from this.)

"Mm, what is it, Rei?"

"What will happen to you, when the world ends?"

"I'll still be here," Ninety-six hums. "Along with Astral, and the rest of the Numbers. We'll be around until the god returns, either to collect us or to destroy this garden at last."

"That's a cruel god, isn't he? To leave you alone for this long."

"Ah, I don't know about the others but I asked to stay. Or should I say, Astral asked to stay, and I followed him."

Rei laughs. "An old man, raising a child alone in the mountains. What a farce. Why can't you be like that Astral guy, and live properly in luxury and a position of power?"

"Because I got stuck with _you_ and not the Saviour, you little abomination," Ninety-six replies fondly, and reaches over to ruffle his hair.

Vector exists, and that means that somewhere in the world is a person whose fate is entangled with his. Sometimes, Rei wonders who that person is.

Ninety-six says: "When you meet him, you will know."

 

* * *

 

 

Rei likes to run, down the mountain so that the wind tears through his hair. It feels a bit like flying.

One autumn in the forest, he meets a girl by the apple trees. She's about his age, her clothes are nice, and she doesn't look like she's from the village.

"Who are you?" he asks.

"My name is Rio—Rio Kamishiro," she says. "I live in the palace, but me and my brother are out for the day. What about you, what's your name...?"

"Re-" he starts, but then thinks better of it and shuts his mouth. "Call me Shingetsu."

It's late autumn, and almost all the trees are bare. Shingetsu picks up the last gold leaf from the ground and looks at it thoughtfully. "Rio? Is it okay if I show you something...?"

"Of course, Shingetsu. What is it?"

"Will you come with me?"

That autumn, Kamishiro Rio vanished. No one knows what happened, since her body was never found. They say she got separated from her brother and went into the Sargasso mountains where there is always snow year-round, and was caught in an avalanche.

Kamishiro Ryouga, thirteen years old, packs up his things and enrolls in Astral's military.

 

* * *

 

 

Shingetsu grows up in that house, halfway up the Sargasso mountains. In summer he throws open all the windows and fetches extra water from the river so he can place bowls throughout the house to keep it cool, and wishes for death. In winter he wraps himself in the warm clothes Ninety-six gets, and reads Ninety-six's books by the weak light of an oil lamp and and looks out of the window at the falling snow.

Beyond the mountain ranges, the wars go on. Rei has not seen it with his own eyes,  but in his dreams he is standing at the edge of a vast grassy plain, the ground piled high with bodies and the stench of blood rotting in afternoon sun. He thinks he should feel grief at the senseless loss, but he does not. He only holds his breath, and longs for the comfort and annihilation of snow.

In the winter Shingetsu opens his eyes to weak daylight, and sees the snow outside his window that covers the garden so nothing can grow, and his heart runs over.

That spring, he goes down to the forest beside the village to pick strawberries, and crashes into a boy with the warmest eyes he has ever seen.

_When you meet him, you will know._

 

 


	7. In this world abandoned by God

 

 

In the castle in the center of the Astral Citadel, General Ryouga stands before the throne. "My apologies, Regent," Ryouga says through gritted teeth. "I take full responsibility for their escape."

Regent Astral's gaze is steady, his voice gentle. "Don't berate yourself, Ryouga. You couldn't have stopped them."

"I could have killed them when I had the chance."

"I'm glad you didn't. We still need the Saviour, and Vector..." Astral considers. "I may know where they have gone. Will you come with me, General?"

Ryouga nods. "Where?"

"Somewhere you have never been before." Regent Astral steps down from his chair and places one hand on Ryouga's shoulder, and the throne room is gone in a gentle swirl of white.

 

 

Atop the tower in the city of glass, Ninety-six abruptly looks up. "Astral," he says to the blank ceiling. "Should have known you'd chase me here eventually." He turns to Yuuma and Shingetsu. "You two, get out. We've got to find somewhere else."

"Where?"

"Never mind. We don't have time. Rei, hide."

But Shingetsu doesn't have time to do anything or even react; a loud crack sounds in the middle of the empty hall and Regent Astral materializes in the center in the room, General Ryouga at his side. Ryouga stumbles, unsteady on his feet before catching himself and getting his footing back. "Could've warned me."

"Next time." Astral nods at him, then turns to face the other occupants of the room. "Yuuma."

Yuuma has gone completely white. "Regent..."

"I'm disappointed, Yuuma," Astral says, his voice as calm as seaside waves. Once Yuuma had fallen asleep night after night to the the cadence of that voice, but he must not, ever again. "I told you to find Vector, and you did. But instead of killing him, you aided him in his escape. Did I raise a traitor and a coward?"

The words sting, but Yuuma's resolve is steel. "No. The opposite. I know what's right, now, and I'll fight for what I believe in."

"Wishes alone do not change the world," Astral says softly. "Not even yours, Saviour."

Another voice cuts in sharply. "You mean, not even yours?"

Yuuma gapes. "Shingetsu..."

Astral watches the boy and says nothing.

"Astral," Shingetsu hisses. "Ninety-six told me everything. The being you called God abandoned this world a long, long time ago, to be a garden in a bottle, and before he left, he almost destroyed it. But you, his ever-faithful servant, stood in his way. You chose to stay behind. What is it you want, Astral?"

Regent Astral's face hardens at his words. "You're just buying time. Yuuma... "

Yuuma has not met Astral's eyes all this time,, and now he pulls his sword free. "Regent, I'm sorry. I can't say how much. But I've made up my mind, and if you're going to stop me, then I'm afraid—"

Ryouga steps in front of the blade, shielding Astral with his body. "I'm disappointed, Tsukumo," Ryouga says. "I expected better."

"I am better," Yuuma says, something clenching in his stomach. _That is why I am doing this._ "Get out of the way, General. I don't want to hurt you."

"Don't overestimate yourself," Ryouga says, but his voice is strained.

Yuuma's eyes narrow as he strikes. Movement to one side as Shingetsu pushes Ryouga out of the way and takes the sword to the chest in his place. Yuuma's eyes widen in horror as Hope hits home, a sickening trail along Shingetsu's ribcage. "SHINGETSU—"

"Call me Rei," Shingetsu breathes as his eyes go blank and he slides to the floor.

"And so another cycle ends," a voice comes from behind. Yuuma doesn't remember seeing the man enter the room, but he's there now, hair the same color as Yuuma's own but longer.

The Regent whirls, his eyes lighting with a fervour Yuuma has never seen before. "Lord. You came back, after all..."

"After so long, this world that never changes its nature seemed to finally have produced an outcome I find interesting. But it'll just end the same way it always has, doesn't it?" Vector will die at the Saviour's hands, and the death counter of the world will be reset, only so that history can repeat itself again.

Now the Researcher turns to Ninety-six, who is standing quietly to the side. "Astral I expected to find here, but not you."

"Glad to have let you down one last time, Lord."

Astral moves forward, looking stricken. "Things will be different this time, Lord."

"You were always so optimistic. Is that why you stayed?"

"Yes, it was."

"Then I look forward to seeing this outcome," the Researcher says. He turns and walks in the direction of the wall, his form turning insubstantial against the stone, leaving only silence in his wake.

"Astral," Ninety-six says, once the Researcher has disappeared. "Do you actually have a plan?"

"No," Astral says.

"He would have taken you with him, you know. But you just had to stay to protect this garden."

"I guess I thought—" Astral pauses, looking away. "All that time ago, I stayed to keep this garden alive because I wished and hoped that he would come back for us, one day. But now I know he never would have."

"I've only told you that for centuries."

Astral doesn't turn. "Why did _you_ stay?"

"Hmm, aside from your pretty face?" Ninety-six hums. "Astral, tell me, do you love that boy? The one you raised."

"—Yes," Astral says. He pauses, as if trying to find the words, but at the end of a very long silence he says only, "I do."

"So do I," Ninety-six says. "It's hard to spend centuries with someone without getting a little bit attached, even if they forget you every time." He waits for Astral to nod before continuing, "So I hope you won't resent me for what I'm about to do."

 

Something seems to be slowly dawning in Astral's eyes. _If just one thing is eliminated, the world can continue on._

Ninety-six turns to Yuuma, who is still fretting over Shingetsu. ""Yuuma, come with me," he says. "To the top of the tower."

"What about him?" Yuuma says.

"There's no way Rei can get up there in this state," Ninety-six says. "But if you go, maybe there's still a way to save Rei."

 

* * *

 

 

They leave Ryouga in the hall along with Vector.

Vector tries to laugh, a wet rasp emanating from his throat instead. "Ryouga, was it? You want me dead, right? Then put me out of my misery."

"You bastard," Ryouga snarls, and swings his blade across Vector's throat. Blood spills over the floor.

Vector opens his eyes and mops at his neck. Beneath the blood, the wound has closed. The gash over his heart has not, and blood blossoms like a flower in the fabric of his shirt. "Like I thought," he says, turning his head to spit a red glob onto the floor. "No one can kill me but the Saviour, remembe—"

"Who said I want you dead?" Ryouga says through gritted teeth. "I want you to _suffer_." Vector's eyes narrow as the sword sinks into his chest again, but he does not make a sound. "For Alit and Gilag, you bastard."

When Vector recovers sufficiently to speak, flesh and blood sparking and knitting together around the sword still embedded inches deep his chest, he asks, "Is that everyone?"

"No," Ryouga grits out. "I could die of old age before I'm finished here." He forces the sword downward again.

When Vector next opens his eyes: "Who is it this time?"

"Haruto Tenjou. He died of exposure."

"And I'm somehow responsible?" Vector laughs as he passes a hand over his eyes, his face white from pain and blood loss.

"Of course."

A minute passes. "You're not trying to kill me any more," Vector points out.

"What's the fucking point. Do you _want_ me to, bastard?"

Vector smiles despite himself. "Maybe?"

"You're sick _,_ " Ryouga replies, but there's no strength in it.

Another minute passes. "It doesn't bring them back, does it?" Vector says. "Kamishiro, I've tried to kill myself more times than you know. It doesn't change anything but the world's death counter. Is that something you can really live with?"

"You bastard," Ryouga says again.

Vector smiles despite himself, the upturn of his lips turning to a pained grimace. "Would you expect anything else from someone who is supposed to destroy the world?"

Ryouga says nothing. Blood drips sickeningly from the tip of his sword and he reflexively rips the cuff of his trousers to clean it.

Vector watches him do it. "I need to see Yuuma," Vector says.

 

* * *

 

 

Astral leads them up a seemingly endless flight of spiral stairs to a room at the very top of the tower, where a single rectangular prism-shaped crystal suspended between two glass pillars.

"This is the Numeron Code," Astral explains. "The crystal from which this miniature garden grew, and to which all its systems are tied. The Lord left it here when he departed. If you use it to erase the cycles from the world, then your roles as Vector and the Saviour will also disappear."

Yuuma pauses. "But as guardians of the garden, your existence is tied to the cycles too, isn't it? That means you'll disappear, too," Yuuma says quietly. "You, and Ninety-six, and all the Numbers."

"Yes, we will," Astral says gently. "That's all right. I stayed this long only to see the Lord's return, and now that he has, there's nothing I need any more. It's your turn to inherit this world our god left behind." He turns to Ninety-six. "Is that fine, Ninety-six?"

"You know I'll always go along with what you want, Astral."

A different voice. "Is that true? There's a way to break the cycles?"

Yuuma whirls around. Shingetsu is standing in the entranceway, one arm around Ryouga's shoulders, blood soaking the entire left side of his tunic.

"Shingetsu?! How did you—"

" _Both_ of you owe me for carrying him all the way up here," Ryouga says.

"I've paid you enough," Shingetsu says wryly. "Ninety-six, is that true? That, if we do this, you'll disappear?"

Ninety-six smiles. "Doesn't matter. I should've gone long ago." He runs a hand fondly through Shingetsu's hair. "Rei, all your life you've followed the path laid out for you. You deserve to have one choice to call your own."

He crosses the room to place one hand on Shingetsu's head, and when he lets go after a long, long time, he helps Shingetsu to the glass pillar where Yuuma already has one hand on the crystal. "I can't let you do it alone, Yuuma," Shingets says. "If you didn't take me by the hand that day, and tell me to run—I would still be living in that place, not knowing anything. I would've died without ever knowing."

Yuuma looks at him and smiles as he covers Yuuma's hand with his own. They hold the crystal between their linked hands, and light grows from the crystal to fill the whole world.

 

* * *

 

 

Spring arrives with the birds from the southern countries, when the white roads turn to green and the morning sun is warmer than it is cold.

Somewhere on the warring borderlands, General Ryouga is negotiating a truce with Photon. In addition to eliminating the wars along the Astral-Photon border, the hope is that the ceasefire will indicate to the warring states that alliance is a viable option after all.

Within Astral's capital city, life has returned to normal, snow melting and turning to rivulets of water that percolate the ground and nourish the seedlings just beginning to grow. The place where the guardians' tower had stood has now become a clearing, surrounded by cherry blossom trees in the first flowers of spring.

Shingetsu Rei remembers spring by the direction of the sun's shadow at the sixth hour of the morning. Yuuma stirs sleepily at his side, tugs the blankets over his own shoulders and nestles in deeper.  Shingetsu looks over at Yuuma fondly and brushes his hair out of his eyes.

Yuuma opens his eyes, suddenly wide awake and attentive. "Do you ever wonder what would have happened if things had gone differently?"

Shingetsu smiles fondly. "I do. But none of that matters now. You took me by the hand, and told me to run, and that changed everything."

Yuuma looks down at their linked hands. "Did I do right?"

"I don't know," Shingetsu says. He turns his face to the sky, narrowing his eyes against the faint sunlight filtering through the leaves. "But I don't regret going with you, that day."

Yuuma smiles. "Then that's enough, isn't it?"

"It's enough," Shingetsu echoes. "And now the rest of our lives are up to us."

Yuuma squeezes his hand and nods. "It is."

 

 


End file.
